


16 candles

by wyomingnot



Series: 16 monks [15]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 16:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16726701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyomingnot/pseuds/wyomingnot
Summary: Armitage's 16th birthday doesn't go as planned.





	16 candles

What Armitage hopes/expects for his sixteenth birthday is a solo job. One he picks and negotiates terms on and runs with Rae as his crew.

What he gets is a household move for some old farts from some random Core world to some other random Mid-Rim world. Everything’s all arranged. He’s in charge, sure, but c’mon.

Rae explains that they used to do a lot of this kind of work when he was very young. Back then it was helping young families escape persecution as former Imperials. Now it’s helping an elderly couple escape the poisoning of their planet.

Armitage gets it. He’s not a total jerk. With concerted effort, he keeps himself from being a brat on the taxi ride to the customers’ residence. Rae’s keeping quiet, but she’s fidgety. She hands him a seriously old-fashioned clipboard with paperwork on it as they pull up to their destination. 

“It’s your show, cadet. Make me proud.” She doesn’t sound right at all, and it’s truly weird when she slips behind him as they walk up to the front door.

He risks a quick look back at her and raises his hand to knock. The door flies open before he has the chance. 

“Armitage! Rae! Come in! Come in!” The not-as-old-as-he-expected woman practically drags them into the house. Her accent is familiar. So’s her face, now that he’s properly looking. 

There’s a couple sticky notes covering a chunk of the top page on the clipboard. He ducks behind Rae and peels it back. Customer’s name. Hazel and Philip Sloane.

Sloane.

“I really did mean for you to have a solo job for your birthday,” Rae says. “But they needed help. And I didn’t know how to tell you. Anything.”

He’s still looking at the names on paper. Rae has parents. That’s she’s kept in touch with. And not told him about. He has no idea what to think about any of it.

He realizes that nobody’s talking and everyone’s looking at him looking at the clipboard. 

Clipboard. Work. Right. He takes a deep breath reaches out to shake hands with the Sloanes. “Sorry about that. Ma’am. Sir. I’m… Armitage, apparently. Rae and I are here to help you with your move.”

He feels more than sees a whole conversation happening between Rae and her mother. “Please, call me Hazel.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Hazel.” He finally takes in the room they’re standing in. Furniture shrouded, boxes stacked neatly against the walls.

“The pleasure is mine.” She looks deranged, smiling as much and as widely as he is. She gestures around the room. “Pretty much everything is packed and ready to go. Philip and I each have a valise for the journey.”

Armitage is flipping through the papers, not actually seeing anything, but he hears ‘valise’ and sees that there’s one by the door and another by the hearth. “Will we be dropping you at the passenger terminal? Or have you arranged other transportation?”

Rae clears her throat, reaches over, and taps the clipboard three times. He looks at the third sheet and feels what little color he has drain from his face. “Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Well. Okay.”

And now everyone’s looking at him as though he’s lost his mind. Or is mentally damaged in some way. This sucks. It’s an easy job. Why is he fucking it up so monumentally?

“I’m going to go around and do a count? A preliminary inventory?” He doesn’t mean to make questions, but Rae responds with a single nod. “I’ll be right back.” After at least three minutes of mediation and the preliminary inventory sorted. 

He practically runs out of the room.

***

Much, much, later when everything’s on the ship, properly palletized and secure. After the Sloanes have been shown where everything is and left in their guest quarters. Once they’re actually on their way, Rae and Armitage talk.

They’re still in the cockpit, where they won’t be disturbed. Rae doesn’t want to deal with her parents until after she talks with Armitage.

“Are you ready to talk?” she asks.

“Are you?” he shoots back, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes.

She’s not used to him speaking sharply. She doesn’t like it, hates that it’s her fault. “When we first set out together, you were effectively an orphan. It seemed very unfair that I should have parents when you did not. I told them about you because they needed to know about the change in my circumstances. My retirement. And, oh yeah, I’m in charge of a kid now, please help.”

“Were you always in touch with them? When you were in the navy?”

“Always. I had to get away from my homeworld when I was younger because I didn’t want to be stuck there as some shipyard worker or something. I saw the Empire come in and do good work and wanted to be a part of that. My parents understood.”

“Did they understand when you retired out of the blue and picked up a kid?”

“Not even a little. But it didn’t matter. All they were concerned about was my well-being and happiness. And I know you might not get that because your own father didn’t give a flying fuck about you.”

Armitage looks away and closes his eyes.

“I know that’s harsh. But it’s the truth.” She reaches over and squeezes his hand.

“I know.” He squeezes back.

They just sit there for a few minutes. 

“They’ve given me some really great advice when it comes to taking care of you.”

“Did they ever tell you to tell me about them?”

“They did. But I just chalked it up to them wanting to be grandparents.”

“But they’re not. Grandparents. I know about them now, and I’m glad that you have them and that they’ve been useful. But. I’m still not your child.”

“So where does this leave us?”

“Sitting in the cockpit?“ Armitage cracks the smallest hint of a smirk.

“Are we good?”

“Getting there.”

“Okay.”

They both get up to leave at the same time. Rae sits back down. “One more thing?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t avoid them. Okay?”

Armitage sighs heavily. “Okay.”

“Let them get to know you a little.”

“Fine.”

“If it gets tough, and you just want to run. Remember. They are clients, just as anyone else has been. Okay?”

“Okay. Okay. Okay. May I be dismissed, Captain?” 

“Dismissed, cadet.”

***

The voyage to the Sloanes’ new home is awkward.

While Rae clearly loves her parents, she just as clearly is not comfortable with them in her space.

Armitage isn’t comfortable with them in the ship either, but it’s nothing personal. He just doesn’t like anyone on board except himself and Rae. He doesn’t even like when talk-y droids are around helping during loading and off-loading.

He apologizes for his initial behaviour and does his best to show them that Rae has done a good job as his guardian. He gives them a proper tour of the ship. Explains how their ship’s time works. Introduces them to Millicent, who rarely leaves the lounge, and to the most recent addition to the crew - Gertrude, their fairly new Vermin Control Officer.

It’s still awkward. But a trip is a temporary thing. Once the Sloanes have been installed in their new home (one of Rae’s safehouses that she has deeded to them), Armitage and Rae will be on their way with promises to keep in touch. Life can get back to normal.

***

Except that it doesn’t.

Rae and Armitage stay on for a few days, helping to unpack and get things settled. It’s not a large house, so Armitage ends up sleeping on the sofa. And it’s weird to him. Sure, he’s stayed in Rae’s safehouses before, but it never felt like he was in someone else’s home before. Now it does, despite the fact that he has actually stayed here before.

After a week, Armitage is going nuts. He doesn’t have his routine, his schoolwork, his physical training, his *room*. He takes to running after dinner, while the proper adults have coffee and talk. 

He comes back from what he hopes will be his last run here to find all the Sloanes waiting for him. This doesn’t look good, despite everyone smiling at him comfortably (Rae and her father) or indulgently (Hazel). He has to consciously force himself not to take a defensive posture.

“Um. What’s going on?” Might as well be direct.

“My parents have a proposal,” Rae says. “I think you should give it serious consideration.” She gets up from her chair and waves Armitage to it. “Sit.”

He does as he’s told, looking from Rae to her parents. “Okay?”

Hazel does all the talking. Armitage is not even a little surprised.

“Have you given any thought to going to school?” Hazel asks.

What a ridiculous question. “I think about school every day. I love school,” he replies.

“I mean *going* to school. An actual learning institution with classrooms and students, library, gymnasium…”

He shrugs. “Not really.” That’s not quite true. A lot of times after signing off with his homeschool discussion pod, he wonders what it would be like to go to school and be around other people. But that’s not the same. Is it?

“Not even for University?”

He doesn’t have an answer for that. He shrugs again. 

“I don’t know if you know this, but there’s a university near here,” Hazel says. “I’ve been in touch with the faculty. Shown them the work you’ve been doing with Rae. They’d like to talk to you about early admission.”

“What?” This isn’t making any sense. Unless. He turns to face Rae. “Are you ditching me?”

***

In the end, he doesn’t really get a say. He’s just left there with his not-grandparents, people he just fucking met. So he can go to a school he’s never heard of and does not care the slightest bit about.

He’s allowed to go back to the ship to pack and say goodbye to Millicent and Gertrude, but he doesn’t get to spend one last night.

They assure him that this isn’t permanent. One year. That’s all he has to do. If he still hates it and hasn’t found any use for school (or living ‘like regular people’) at the end of that year, he can go back and they won’t speak of it again.

That first night, all he wants to do is break every single thing in his room. But he doesn’t, because he’s not a brat. When that passes, he’s left with wanting to cry and cry and cry. But he doesn’t, because he’s not a baby. 

When that passes, he pulls out his datapad and starts a new journal. He numbers the inaugural entry #365. He won’t break things or cry, but he will note that that is how he feels, in addition to the local meteorological status, how long and far he ran, and a last holo of him, Rae, and the cats in the cockpit. Because he may not be a co-pilot for the time being, but he can damn sure keep a log.

**Author's Note:**

> [originally posted on tumblr](http://wyomingnot.tumblr.com/post/180377737900/16-candles)


End file.
